Lungarno Pacinotti, at the corner of via Curtatone and Montanara

Lungarno Pacinotti (M. Cerrai, Comune di Pisa)

The Pisan Lungarno (the set of streets along the Arno) at the time of Leopardi maintained its medieval aspect, with piers, docks and ancient bridges that still showed their beauty. Between 1871 and 1875 it underwent a remarkable intervention which led to the arrangement of the road section, the disappearance of the piers (only a few were kept) and the creation of the so-called brick protection shoulders. The bridges were blown up by the Germans in 1944 and rebuilt without considering their original appearance.

L’aspetto di Pisa mi piace assai più di quel di Firenze. Questo lungarno è uno spettacolo così bello, così ampio, così magnifico, così gaio, così ridente che innamora: non ho veduto niente di simile né a Firenze né a Milano, né a Roma, e veramente non so se in tutta l'Europa si trovino vedute di questa sorta. Vi si passeggia poi nell'inverno con gran piacere, perché v'è quasi sempre un'aria di primavera: sicché in certe ore del giorno quella contrada è piena di mondo, piena di carrozze e di pedoni: vi si sentono parlare dieci o venti lingue, vi brilla un sole bellissimo tra le dorature dei caffè, delle botteghe piene di galanterie e nelle invetriate dei palazzi e delle case, tutte di bella architettura. Nel resto poi, Pisa è un misto di città grande e di città piccola, di cittadino e di villereccio, un misto così romantico, che non ho veduto mai altrettanto. A tutte le alte bellezze, si aggiunge la bella lingua.

Giacomo Leopardi, 12 dicembre 1827, lettera alla sorella Paolina.

I like the appearance of Pisa much more than that of Florence. This lungarno is a sight that is so beautiful, so broad, so magnificent, so pleasant, so happy that it makes you fall in love: I have not seen anything like it in Florence or Milan, or in Rome, and I really don't know if there are any views of this sort in all over Europe. Then you walk in the winter with great pleasure, because there is almost always an air of spring: so at certain times of the day that district is full of world, full of carriages and pedestrians: one hears ten or twenty languages being spoken, there shines a beautiful sun among the gilding of the cafes, of the shops full of galleries and plate glass windows of buildings and houses, all of beautiful architecture. In the rest, Pisa is a mixture of a large city and a small city, urban and rustic, a mixture so romantic, that I have never seen anywhere else. To all the other beauties, the beautiful language is added.

Giacomo Leopardi, 12 December 1827, letter to his sister Paolina.

The Lungarno and the neighbouring areas were the set of cinematographic films or part of some of their scenes:

Fino a qui tutto bene (So far so good) (2014) by Roan Johnson. A comedy about a group of students in the last days of them living together. In the film we see the atmosphere created by sharing the university years in a city like Pisa, where every year students from all over Italy and the whole world, thanks to exchange programs, come to study. A city in which the 90,000 inhabitants are joined, thanks to the three universities, by about 50,000 students. The director Roan Johnson grew up in Pisa and Paolo Cioni, one of the protagonists, is a Pisan actor. The same director also d I primi della Lista (The First on the List) (2011), a film about a true story that happened in the seventies to three young Pisan musicians who believed in an imminent coup.
Amici miei atto II (My friends Part II) (1982) by Mario Monicelli. In Lungarno Pacinotti we see the escape of the truck “Tower Servicce” following the one taking place in Piazza del Duomo.
L’amica geniale (My brilliant friend) (7th episode, II season of the TV series, 2019). The scene of the workers' demonstration was filmed in Lungarno Pacinotti.